Ambrose, Walsh defend Sammy

Captain of the West Indies cricket team, Darren Sammy, has received support from two former international stalwarts and West Indies legends — Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.

According to the Antigua Observer newspaper, the fast bowling duo made an appearance on the Good Morning JoJo Sports Show Thursday and agreed that the critics have been a bit harsh on the St Lucian.

Ambrose, who played 98 Tests taking 405 wickets at an average of 20.99, believed that angry fans, critics and even past administrators and players who have lashed out at Sammy, are simply hunting for a scapegoat.

“No one man can win or lose (any) game for (any) team and the team playing poorly has nothing to do with Darren Sammy alone and that is really an unfair criticism,” Ambrose said.

“Every single member of the team has to be blamed for the poor performances. When you are winning, everybody gets the credit including the captain. But we in the Caribbean have a tendency that as soon as anything is going wrong the first man to blame is the captain and then maybe the coach; but it’s the whole team and I am a team person. So it is an unfair criticism for Darren Sammy.”

The Antiguan, who also played 176 ODIs and bagged 225 wickets, was supported by his Jamaican counterpart, who said that although Sammy has struggled with his personal performances from time to time, laying the blame solely at his feet would be nothing short of unfair.

“I still was able to maintain a level of performance that they couldn’t say I wasn’t performing and maybe because Darren Sammy has gone through some of that where he has not been performing, he is under a little more pressure but as Curtly rightly said, it’s the make-up of the team and you need strong individuals around you – management, coaches and vice captain – to help pull you through,” Walsh said.

“I think he has been lacking a little in that because he is not performing at his level. But if you look back at it, the team is just not performing as well as they can or as well as they should,” he added.

Walsh represented West Indies from 1984 to 2001 and captained the team in 22 Test matches. He played 132 Tests and bagged 519 wickets during his 17-year career.